Review :: The Thousandth Floor // Recovering from my ACOWAR slump

A thousand-story tower stretching into the sky. A glittering vision of the future where anything is possible—if you want it enough.

WELCOME TO MANHATTAN, 2118.

A hundred years in the future, New York is a city of innovation and dreams. Everyone there wants something…and everyone has something to lose.

LEDA COLE’s flawless exterior belies a secret addiction—to a drug she never should have tried and a boy she never should have touched.

ERIS DODD-RADSON’s beautiful, carefree life falls to pieces when a heartbreaking betrayal tears her family apart.

RYLIN MYERS’s job on one of the highest floors sweeps her into a world—and a romance—she never imagined…but will this new life cost Rylin her old one?

WATT BAKRADI is a tech genius with a secret: he knows everything about everyone. But when he’s hired to spy for an upper-floor girl, he finds himself caught up in a complicated web of lies.

And living above everyone else on the thousandth floor is AVERY FULLER, the girl genetically designed to be perfect. The girl who seems to have it all—yet is tormented by the one thing she can never have.

Amid breathtaking advancement and high-tech luxury, five teenagers struggle to find their place at the top of the world. But when you’re this high up, there’s nowhere to go but down….

Sarah J Maas and all her YA genius is tough to move on from and I knew with the ACOTAR series over I would struggle to find anything as engaging. But as I had already purchased The Thousandth Floor I owed it to myself (and my bank account) to give it a try.

From the description, I was expecting a dystopian Gossip Girl, full of teenage drama and a hint of sci-fi. This is pretty much what I got. The Thousandth Floor is pure trashy, fun DRAMA.

EVERYONE is hiding something. Sex, secrets, and drugs are rife in 2118 New York City. Some of the secrets are so creative and outlandish it was painful at times. I couldn’t help thinking that if the characters were just honest with the people close to them things wouldn’t have gotten out of hand. (But then it would not have been so fun!)

This book presents some gripping questions from the onset when a beautiful girl falls from the tallest tower in the world.

Who was she? How did she fall? Was she pushed or did she jump?

This was the mystery that drew me onwards to the gripping if slightly anti-climatic ending where all is revealed. It was the only reason I kept reading, as the characters themselves failed to grip me (except perhaps Rylin).

This book is multiple POV and follows five perspectives: Avery, Leda, Rylin, Watt and Eris. All of whom have secrets they are trying to keep hidden. The characters are varied in personality and from a wide range of social classes.

Avery is the pinnacle of society, with wealth beyond belief and a luxurious penthouse a the top of the tower. Eris is not far behind, but her drama revolves largely around her changing fortunes. Leda is a trainwreck, with a perspective that was hard to stomach by the end of the story. Watt and Rylin are lower on the social scale, especially Rylin whose journey prompted the most empathy from me as a reader. The other character dramas seem insignificant when you consider the oppressive poverty and nefarious characters that Rylin had to overcome over the course of the novel. Although, even she makes some stupid choices and keeps secrets when she doesn’t have to (they all do!)

Avery was an utterly frustrating main character, whose stupid decisions and selfish treatment of others sent the story towards its horrible conclusion. Watt was incredibly manipulative and I am unsure whether I liked him or not. Eris frustrated me, but she was the only character who had real growth throughout the course of the story.

This book has some interesting side characters and I spent a great deal of time speculating on which of them (if any) would turn out to be the villain. I knew what was going happen from about 90% of the way through, but the climax was still exciting!

The romances were average, with the tension largely unconvincing. The only romance that provoked an emotional reaction from me was the LGBTI couple. Those who have read the book will know who I am talking about.

I am thinking of this book as ‘dystopian light’, largely because of the reinforced system of inequality present in the world. In no other way is it dystopian. The presence of interesting tech and genetically designed humans also adds a sci-fi element, but I would not call this book science fiction. This book is 100% teen drama/ young adult romance. It is a juicy drama that is entertaining, but nothing much more than that.

I’ve never been a huge teenage drama fan, but the mystery aspect of this novel intrigues me. This definitely sounds like the kind of book I would read to get out of a slump. I’ll have to add it to the pile! Thanks for the review!